By: RBT
Ron The Cop

I’ve been sharing emails with some friends re the tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami [See full text here]. It’s been apparent that the talking heads of the MSM including FOX NEWS have been hyping/sensationalizing the Fukushima nuclear event either intentionally or through ignorance. It is clear that many commentators/anchors have very little understanding of the inner workings and engineering of a working nuclear power plant. There is a constant drumbeat if this event will surpass the tragedy that occurred in Chernobyl.

To be sure the Fukushima event is a very serious event. In the end this event will not be about the integrity of the nuclear reactor cores after all they survived a earthquake of magnitude 9 and the resultant tsunami but about backup secondary power to continue circulating the fluid through the reactor core. The tsunami took out the backup generators not unlike the surge water took out the backup generators for the pumps for dikes in New Orleans in Katrina. This was a foreseeable event. The newer generation nuclear power plants have water gravity feeds, but the US also has many older reactors nearing their useful life of similar designs to Fukushima.

More importantly the containment and security of the spent fuel rods stored on site is the real story because of the inability of reaching a political consensus to permanently store these nuclear wastes. If spent fuel rods in the meantime are to be stored on site then more must be required to do this safely. We have many sites in the US with many reactor cores of spent fuel rods stored on site that pose many of the same problems that have now come to light in the Fukushima event.

read more…